Vacation Part III - 4th of July in St. Louis!

At the Three Monkey Restaurant with Jason!

Busch Stadium

4th of July Parade

Watching the parade

Tribute to the All Star Game

Lake Mills Marching Band in St. Louis

Alaina enjoying the parade


The parade pirates scared Alaina

Ky proud of his loot!

Walking the fun fountain downtown

All Star Arch


This one is for Kelly--notice the Cargill sign on the building in the background

Ky with the Arch

A very happy boy with a green balloon!

The head statue that Ky got his foot stuck in

Splash pad fountains in Downtown St. Louis

The balloon lost its ability to float

Up! Balloon UP!

This looks like fun...can I try it?

I CHANGED MY MIND!

GET ME OUT!

Catching the water (Sadly the balloon popped--but Ky still had fun!)

Where'd the water go?

I found the water!




We arrived in St. Louis around dinner time. We had splurged on our last day of vacation and gotten a good deal to stay at the Westin in downtown St. Louis--just a block away from Busch Stadium (too bad the team was on the road.) We made plans to meet up for dinner with a college friend of ours--Jason. When we walked into the room we were blown away. (I can't believe I forgot to take pics.) The room was awesome. Even Ky got his own bed with the pull-out sofa, Rob and I had a King sized bed. The bathroom had a separate bath and shower--the shower had 2 shower heads. Yeah--this was the way to go after 5 days of camping.

Before we met up with Jason, we decided showers and baths were well deserved AND needed...Plus we figured Jason would probably appreciate us showering as well. Oh yeah--there is nothing better than that first shower after camping--well there are some better things, but you know what I mean.

After that we were off to meet up with Jason. We went to a restaurant called Three monkeys. They had great food! Especially the pizza--I ordered a pizza called Fire in the Hole. It had Sweet & Spicy wing sauce, hand-pulled pork, jalapenos, spicy bacon, and pepper jack cheese. Now I don't normally like spicy food--but this was DELICIOUS--I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone traveling through.

After that we all pretty much crashed--comfy beds, inside, clean--oh yeah! The next morning we woke up to pouring rain. It rained and it rained--poured rain! We were pretty much trapped in the hotel (and had to check out by 11!) We also had to get some food. So Rob braved the rain and ran down the street and found a Starbucks. We ate muffins & scones for breakfast along with a little left over fruit from camping. I feel sorry for housekeeping--the kids made a mess with the crumbly food. What was I to do?

Right at check out time it stopped raining! YEAH! So off we went to wander the streets of St. Louis looking for lunch. We were searching for a local bakery known as the "St. Louis Bread Company" when we were stopped by the fourth of July parade! How fun! So of course Ky was psyched--and so was I, so we stopped and watched.

Ky really enjoyed it, Alaina was indecisive on whether the parade was more exciting or the people around her. Several times people came up and gave the kids beads and candy. There were several marching bands from Wisconsin which was neat. At the very end a ship with pirates came out. They ran over to everyone in the crowd yelling "ARGH!" Ky loved it because they gave him candy, however poor Alaina was terrified by the pirate that yelled "ARGH!" in her face. It was a great time.

After the parade we were off to find our lunch. Well, it turned out that the St. Louis Bread Company was actually Panera--bleh! We wanted something original so we left and kept walking. Unfortunately, everything was closed so we ended back up at Panera--I mean the "St. Louis Bread Company." After lunch we headed towards the arch where the festival was. On the way we passed through several fountain parks that Ky just loved. I guess the fountains were just put in recently. They were really neat. We got to the arch and the festival and Ky's behavior was not impressive at all. Ky didn't care about the arch--he just started whining. I think at that point the boy was vacationed out. We decided at that point to just leave. So we started going when Ky spotted a lady with balloons and asked for one. So we bought him one and his whole attitude changed. He was the happiest boy with that balloon. He was walking so nicely with us--and then we discovered the Splash park.

So we gave him permission to run free--and boy did he ever. People literally stopped to watch Ky in all his excitement. There was one group of ladies in particular who was just laughing and giggling at him. It was also funny because after a short while his balloon stopped floating--he got a little frustrated, but then just started dragging the balloon behind him. At one point he tried to get the water to push the balloon back up in the air! Too funny! And how smart!

Then the balloon popped. We had a moment of tears--but then he went back to playing with the fountains. Alaina was curious about the fountains, but when we got her out in them she cried and cried.

After the fountains we walked back to our car and pretty much headed home. We did try to find some local ice cream--but it was closed due to the holiday--blah!

We got home around midnight. It was actually a pretty entertaining drive watching the fireworks on the drive. We decided not to try to see any firework shows since Ky has decided he is terrified of the noises that fireworks make--sounds too much like thunder---his new fear--but that is for another blog.

Whew! Finally have finished my vacation blog! I am catching up--slowly but surely I will be back on track!